Gary Lee Kraut is an American and French dual citizen specialized in travel, culture and touring in France. Originally from Trenton, New Jersey, he is the author of five travel guides to France and Paris as well as numerous articles, essays, short stories, and op-ed pieces concerning travel, culture, cross-culture, and life abroad.
He has a passion for meeting enriching people and sharing information and experiences that enrich the travels and armchair travel of those interested in France. At home in both French and American journalism circles he served as Secretary General of the Association des Journalistes du Patrimoine, France’s Heritage Journalists Association, from 2016 to 2020.
His expertise led him to be interviewed on NBC and MSNBC in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Nov. 13, 2015. A 2016 interview about his work on the blog Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road can be read here.
Following the publication of his critically acclaimed guide Paris Revisited: The Guide for the Return Traveler in 2003, he founded the companion site ParisRevisited.com. That site evolved into the current online magazine France Revisited, launched in January 2009.
He was awarded the North American Travel Journalists Association’s Gold Prize Award for best Culinary Travel article written for the internet in 2013. France Revisited itself received the NATJA’s Silver Prize Award in the Online Travel Magazine category of 2014. Earlier, at a time when guidebooks ruled rather than the internet, he received FrancePress’s 1995 Prix d’Excellence for his guide to France published in the Fielding Guidebook Collection.
He is the author and voice behind three audio tours created for the VoiceMap app: The Left Bank’s Most Elegant Park: Exploring the Luxembourg Garden (2020), The Tuileries Garden: The Royal Walk from the Louvre to the Champs-Elysées (2021) and The Champs-Elysées: From Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe (2022).
Lecturing. Gary Lee Kraut has lectured extensively in the United States, using stories, knowledge and insights from his travel, touring and life abroad to reveal how our most rewarding travel experiences are ones in which we find a personal connection with our route or destination. He has spoken on subjects as diverse as American War Memories in France, focusing on either the First or Second World Wars; the history of the wines of Burgundy and Champagne; the Jewish history of Paris; culinary explorations in Paris; understanding patrimoine/heritage in France; the Jewish history of Paris; biking in France, and others. (These lectures typically take place in February. See here and here for examples and contact him directly if interested in hosting one of his lectures.) He has lectured in France as well, including in the penitentiary system. For many years now he has also been leading the weekly France Revisited writing workshop Paris Vignettes and its companion reading series.
The scope of his interests have led him to serve on the French national jury for the Rubans du Patrimoine, which awards prizes to towns and villages in France for the restoration and use of heritage sites, on the jury of a major Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine competition, an international calvados cocktail competition, international olive oil and chocolate contests, and a Paris cupcake competition.
Touring. Gary’s knowledge of France and his passion for creating enriching travel experiences have led him to assist hundreds of travelers seeking highly personalized travel advice and tours in France. He works with individuals and small groups directly and through top-flight travel agents. Clients have included travelers from Wall Street to Hollywood, from West Virginians to Oklahomans to Oregonians to Texans, from a U.S. Senator to a best-selling novelist, from art-loving foodies from Florida and Georgia to doctors, lawyers and wine-loving professionals from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and many curious travelers in between. See here for information about touring in the spirit of France Revisited®.
His Curious Tasting & Travel Club organizes occasional events, in English, that attract Parisians as well as visitors.
Thanks to France Revisited’s international reach, he has also been called upon by travel professionals from Mexico, the United Kingdom, Israel and Australia.
Gary has also had the honor of assisting charitable organizations in the U.S., enabling them to offer added-value tours in Paris and the regions of France for charity auctions and for exclusive donor trips. His particular interest is in contributing to causes related to education, autism and the arts.